Open Source Software, Linux, and Tutorial

User Mode Linux (UML) is my favourite tool for simulating real network environtment. Because it’s simple and using small computer resources. But you can simulate a full working server in a UML. In this post, i will show you how to prepare a host computer for running User Mode Linux. Unlike Qemu, there is a ‘special treatment’ for the host so it can run UMLs.

I recommend Debian if you want to use UML, because as far as i know, Debian is the most stable distribution for running UML. I’ve tried Ubuntu, but UML isn’t working. When installing Debian, give space for swap as big as possible. It is useful when you running a lot of UMLs. Usually, i use 10 GB for swap. It’s better if your memory size is also big.

Ok, now this is step-by-step that you need to prepare host for User Mode Linux :

Install openssh-server and build-essential

Download kernel source from repository or from kernel.org. I recommend to use kernel version 2.6.35.4, because newest SKAS patch is avalaible for that version

Extract the kernel source into a directory (e.g: /usr/src/), then in that directory will exist a folder named linux-2.6.35.4/